Foley Accepts Gavel, Calls on GOP, Democrats to ‘Put Away Bitterness’

The House of Representatives elevated Thomas S. Foley of Washington to be the 49th Speaker in its history today, and he immediately appealed to both parties to “put away bitterness” after months of turmoil that led to the resignation of Speaker Jim Wright.

Foley promised to help return tranquility to a House that has been ripped by charges and counter-charges of ethical impropriety, and to put ethics reform on his list of priorities for the year.

“I am a proud Democrat,” Foley declared to the full House after he was elected and sworn in. He appealed to Republicans as well as his own party to “come together and put away bitterness and division and hostility.”

“We need to debate public issues vigorously, even passionately. But we need to debate and decide with reason and without rancor,” he said.

Foley was elected on a party-line vote of 251 to 164, defeating Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois. The vote, in a crowded House chamber, marked the first time a party has changed speakers in the middle of a congressional term because of a controversy over ethics.

Michel, in his concession speech, said, “I’m all for putting an end to bitterness. I’m all for putting our House in order. But we don’t do it by sweeping things under the rug.”

Final Shot at Wright

In a final shot at Wright, Michel said members of the Ethics Committee who had investigated him were “neither mindless nor cannibals”--a reference to Wright’s call last week for the House to end the “mindless cannibalism” he saw around him.

Wright, who turned the gavel over to his successor, praised Foley before the session as a man who could turn the chamber’s attention from backbiting to lawmaking.

“My great hope is that the House can return to its most important business of legislating,” Wright said, adding that “vigilantism . . . just begets more bad will.”

Foley, the party’s majority leader for the last 2 1/2 years, had been nominated unanimously by Democrats and promised a new era of conciliation with the House’s restive minority Republicans, who often complained about what they saw as Wright’s heavy-handed leadership style.

“I hope that this can be the beginning of the movement of the House back to the business for which the public elected us to serve,” he told reporters. He pledged quickly to “restore a mood of conciliation, reconciliation and cooperation between the two parties.”

Coelho Praises Foley

Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), who also is resigning from the House because of ethics charges, called Foley “a man for all seasons--a man uniquely suited for this season.”

In his acceptance speech to the closed-door Democratic caucus meeting, Foley sought to underline his party credentials by speaking of his childhood during the Depression as the basis for his belief in government as a tool for helping people.

But he also said he wanted to be Speaker not only of his party, but of the whole House, participants said. Foley was seen by Democrats as having a calmness and a conciliatory approach that Wright lacked.

“He said there is a need for trust, a need to do something worth remembering while we’re here,” said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.). “It’s a new era. We’re turning a new corner in American life.”